Transparency and turbidity are two sides of the same coin. They are important to understand if we are to see the true impact of our environmental decisions. Whether we are looking at government processes or at the impact on deep-sea ecosystems, transparency matters. Today, the Clarion Clipperton Zone - some of the clearest waters in the world is now under threat from deep-sea mining.In this, our Season 2 finale of Environmentally Speaking, we explore the concept of government transparency and the importance of understanding ocean turbidity.  Join us as we discuss these critical issues with the CEO of the Jamaica Environment Trust, Dr. Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie, and Paige Samuels - politics and history researcher and host of Checkmate, the political podcast.

There’s a lot more to deep-sea mining than just the pure facts. It’s more than just minerals and the effects can be far beyond any financial or biophysical loss or gains. In this week’s episode, we talk with Danielle Nembhard and Esther Figueroa about the livelihood and the more-than-human impacts of deep-sea mining. By critically exploring different notions on how society is organized around consumerism and our relationships with the environment, we dissected issues on worldview, cultures, political economy, and knowledge systems. This is a mind-bending conversation you don’t want to miss!

In this week's episode, we dove deep into the barriers to environmental journalism. With our guest from the GlobalYaadie Podcast, Dainalyn Swaby, we explored obstacles to covering climate change and environmental issues in mainstream media, dissecting the industry that we rely on for our news and information, in the hopes of holding them to a higher standard of accountability. This is particularly critical within the context of Deep Sea Mining- an issue that many, still, are unaware of. One that has come into the spotlight after what feels like a long period of operation in the shadows. What is the media's role in these conversations? Is there a duty to inform or a commitment to the bottom line? How far does environmental journalism go?

"On this episode of Diving Deep, we spoke with EcoVybz Podcast creator and the Caribbean representative for the Sustainable Ocean Alliance, Khadija Stewart about the risks we face as small island developing states supporting big global north corporations to undertake deep-sea mining. In addition to the potential widespread environmental impacts including, biodiversity loss, carbon-sink disruption, and loss of fisheries, Khadija shared a report from The Metals Company which suggests that the economic benefits may not be that great. Many sources agree, saying that these contracts, like many before, are predatory on small and volatile economies like ours in the Caribbean. So the question is, should we be cautious? What does a precautionary approach look like for us? Is deep-sea mining really worth it?"

The ocean is approximately 12,100 feet (3,688 meters) deep and we have only explored about 5% of it. That means the majority of our ocean HAS NOT BEEN EXPLORED. This season on Environmentally Speaking, we are diving deep into the ocean and discussing the topic of deep-sea mining, which is set to start as early as July 2023. But there are still a lot of unknowns related to the ocean's ecological systems. Join us, as we kick off season two of Environmentally Speaking, learning more about the deep sea and what we don't know about the ocean.

Over the past few months, we’ve looked at how COVID-19 has affected various sectors, so in our final session we’ll be reviewing some of the most salient points, suggestions, tying them together, and wrapping them up. We want to figure out how we can craft our advocacy to address some of the issues highlighted and implement some of these solutions. We don’t want this initiative to end with us just having discussions and that’s the end of it. Our goal is to create a strategic plan about how we as young people can lobby our policymakers and private sector partners to create the radical change that we need to move Jamaica forward in a post COVID world.

There is no society without people. According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “The COVID-19 outbreak affects all segments of the population and is particularly detrimental to members of those social groups in the most vulnerable situations, [it] continues to affect populations, including people living in poverty situations, older persons, persons with disabilities, youth, and indigenous peoples. Early evidence indicates that the health and economic impacts of the virus are being borne disproportionately by poor people. For example, homeless people, because they may be unable to safely shelter in place, are highly exposed to the dangers of the virus. People without access to running water, refugees, migrants, or displaced persons also stand to suffer disproportionately both from the pandemic and its aftermath – whether due to limited movement, fewer employment opportunities, increased xenophobia, etc.If not properly addressed through policy the social crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic may also increase inequality, exclusion, discrimination, and global unemployment in the medium and long term.’

Goal 1 of Jamaica's Vision 2030 development plan speaks to Jamaicans being empowered to achieve their fullest potential. Under this goal, one of the national outcomes is listed as “World-Class Education and Training” and that “Vision 2030 Jamaica recognizes the need for every Jamaican child to have access to education to the level that enables him/her to access further education, training and/or decent work.” These can be logically assumed to fit in with strategic objective #2 of the current education framework which says “Secure teaching and learning opportunities that will optimize access, equity and relevance throughout the education system.”Even with this, hundreds of thousands of students remain without proper access to basic amenities that would have been necessary to ensure this equity even if COVID-19 didn't happen. What do we need to do to ensure access is sustainable should we have another disaster that will force us to do most of our business from home.

Governments need to focus on the general welfare of citizens and make investments in areas that unlock human potential, such as mental health services, reducing child poverty and homelessness, promoting Indigenous rights, fighting climate change, and expanding opportunities. "Economic growth accompanied by worsening social outcomes is not success," Ardern (New Zealand Prime Minister said. "It is a failure."This episode of #CovidChat looks at the economic realities of Caribbean nations in the wake of Covid-19. It Assess the potential for significant growth as we look to reopen economies and how we can incorporate stronger frameworks for sustainability in doing business to ensure access to opportunities of all citizens.

We know that Covid-19 has restricted movement globally and even with some countries opening borders, travel, and movement are not what they used to be. Agriculture, globally, has taken a massive hit due to these actions that served to protect public health.We mentioned the last episode that there is an excess of produce at source due to the closure of massive hotels, restaurants, and other places of entertainment, in addition to the reduced opening hours of marketplaces and the lockdown of major populated areas. This, again, is highlighting a major deficiency in global food security frameworks. In this episode, we want to explore some of the gaps in the local food security framework and how we can fill them to ensure we do not have a repeat of this after Covid-19.